Video monitoring systems are widely deployed for various purposes, which include security and public safety. In a typical video monitoring system, one or more cameras are deployed in different locations to monitor activities. For example, video monitoring systems generate images of public places, transportation facilities, retail stores, industrial facilities, and residences and other private property. The monitoring systems often include data storage devices that archive some or all of the recorded video for later review, and one or more video output devices that enable playback of live and archived video data.
In some monitoring systems, the cameras generate video data that are monitored by one or more human operators who can view activity in the video and take appropriate action if they view an incident. For example, in a monitoring system at a retail store, the operator views live video of individuals in the store and alerts security personal if an individual attempts to shoplift merchandise. In some video monitoring systems, multiple cameras record video of a single scene from different positions and angles. While producing video from multiple angles can be helpful in collecting additional detail about a scene, the multiple video recordings are difficult for a human operator to observe in an efficient manner. Additionally, in networked video monitoring systems, multiple video streams consume large amounts of bandwidth and network resources, particularly in wireless video monitoring systems. Consequently, improvements to video monitoring systems that identify events of interest in recorded video data in an automated manner and that utilize network bandwidth in an efficient manner would be beneficial.